FAUEE

I've had it for about a week now, and I would say I've gotten used to it. Overall, it's amazing, and I'd say nearly perfect. But, I do have some thoughts about it.

First, the good... Literally almost everything. The interior quality is great, the power is borderline obscene, the transmission is perfectly tuned, the seats are comfortable and supportive, it's pretty decent on gas, the fuel tank is large enough, the stereo is excellent (to be fair, mine has the $3500 upgraded b&w stereo so it better be), cargo space is adequate, suspension and chassis are great... The overall package is killer. Around town, the car feels very fast, but you can tone it down in eco pro mode and it trodd along like anything else. The suspension is firm and communicative, but also very comfortable. It's crazy how quiet it is inside the cabin, very little outside noise gets in, but the big *** tires do make some noise underway.

Things I'm a bit less enthused by... Mine has the 22" wheels which while they look awesome, have very limited tire choices, and they're very expensive. Like some of the 315 rear tires are 700$ each. There's nittos that are in the $300-400 range each, and Continental in the $400-500 range, but they're an oddball size so outside of those two there's really not much out there. Not a problem for today, and honestly not a huge deal, but it's a bummer there's not more options, they don't even offer the DWS06 in that size. I might explore stepping down to a 20" wheel when it's time for tires.

The rear seats don't slide back. Not a huge deal, and they're plenty spacious, but I sort of expected they would, since a lot of competitive vehicles offer that.

The sound is too quiet. It sounds nice on cold starts, but after it warms up a tiny bit, it's nearly silent. It opens the exhaust valves a bit for different driving modes, but I could use about 3x more sound just across the board. Maybe that's where I fall more on the sport than luxury side of things, but I'd like some more sound.

Laser lights... Due to US regulations they kinda neuter these. The high beam is on/off, and doesn't do the cool tunneling things where it turns off high beams only around the oncoming car. Apparently this functionality can be turned on via coding changes. While we're grilling about lights, the whole car is blacked out... Except the headlights. There's optional shadow line lights that black our the interior chrome, but they're optional and that's one of the few options mine doesn't have (it appears they only became available in 2023 anyways). Just a bummer, it'd look even better with that part blacked out.

The tow hitch is the other option mine doesn't have, and while there's a great aftermarket option, it requires replacing the rear crash bar with the tow hitch. The OEM tow hitch apparently has a different rear fascia with a cutout for the receiver, and the aftermarket one uses a bit more complicated setup with an L shaped receiver you slide up and lock in place when you want to use it. The aftermarket one is rather for like 7700lbs though, so that's nice.

Those minor gripes aside, I love this thing. Coming from my TBSS, it's amazing how similar they are. They're like, two companies trying to make the same vehicle, just at different points in time and with their own hardware. The X5 is a little wider and maybe a bit longer, but they're virtually identical in size. In terms of feel, they're both sporty but not so much so that you couldn't use it as a family car. They both have fairly spacious trunks, good stereos, and are overall fairly non-descript. Unless you know what you're looking at, they're just another SUV on the road. I would say the TBSS is maybe a little more likely to have people notice it with the polished brake duct openings, and also, mine is longtubes and SLP exhaust, so it's louder than the average SUV.

Overall, it feels like a really logical upgrade to the TBSS in every way. It makes me have a bit of an extra appreciation for just how good of a package the TBSS was, and how great my particular TBSS is. It took a BMW with an MSRP of $100k to be better than my TBSS without any real tradeoffs to get there.

EVRGRN

Cool ride for sure. While we can use the Google machine you should still post a couple of pics.

FAUEE

It rained here for most of my ownership, so I haven't had a chance to get any decent pictures, lol.

sublime1996525

Pics!

03 A/E Coupe

Nobody wants Hurried Half Azz Pictures in the Rain

Good Pics will come to those who Wait . . .

00C Just for Fun

I drove an X5 40i and 50e yesterday. Really liked 50e, but bit worried about initial reliability of hybrid. Many folks having issues. I realize you have the sportier M, but I haven't seen it compared often to the TBSS!

JABCAT

They really are great vehicles. The shadowline lights are like a $300 option or something but cost $2500 ea if you want to swap them, which is crazy.

I've read the laser light features can be enabled through one of the coding apps, bimmercode maybe.

Just had to buy new tires yesterday for my wife's X3MC and even with the 21" wheels there were only a few choices. Went with michelin Pilot Sport All Season 4. Bonus, the rep at Discount Tire Direct mis-quoted the price and when she pointed it out he said "my bad, I already quoted you, so that's the price I'm giving you." Instant $450 dollar discount


I don't know what interior you have but if you like carbon fiber, I've picked up several pieces for the interior off Ali Express. Matches the oem cf perfectly and about 1/4 of the price.

JABCAT

I've purchased ~$7,000 worth of tires in the last year - expensive year!

FAUEE

There's guys on the bimmer forums that can code in the anti dazzle fancy lights, they make a point that bimmercode can't do it very often.

I did see the interior CF kits on Ali and eBay. Honestly I've grown to be ok with the wood, I'd prefer the CF, but it doesn't really stick out. It's dark enough that it kinda fades out. I'll eventually probably do the CF kits, but not in a big rush.

FAUEE

Theyve been doing that PHEV for a few years now, it was the 45e and is now the 50e with more power. It's a really slick setup, I'm baffled as to why they didn't do it in X7 as well. It'd be a perfect fit.

I did consider the PHEV though. It's quick, and the turbo inline 6 can make gobs of power. It just didn't really resonate with me. It's the intelligent choice... But it didn't really satisfy my thirst. I want to be excited when I'm spending this kind of money, lol. It just didn't do it for me like the V8 did.